The Columbia Population Research Center (CPRC) seeks R24 Population Research Infrastructure Program - Short-term Support for Rising Programs from the Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch at NICHD/NIH (PAR-07-401). We request $750,000 in direct costs over the five-year period beginning July 1, 2009. CPRC has four signature areas of research: (1) children, youth, and families, (2) HIV/AIDS and reproductive health, (3) immigration and migration, and (4) urbanism. Research In these four areas is united by two cross-cutting themes: (1) the health and well-being of vulnerable populations;and (2) the formation, implementation, and evaluation of public health and social policies that address these vulnerabilities. Our goals are to: (1) nourish a vibrant intellectual community of population researchers at Columbia University;(2) advance population research in our four signature areas;(3) become a leading population center specializing In research on the health and well being of vulnerable populations locally, nationally, and internationally, and on public policies relevant to those populations;and (4) take advantage of Columbia's location in New York City, both to address Issues specific to or aggravated by its status as a global city, and also to exploit and further develop the many partnerships between Columbia researchers and local academic, city, and International institutions. We will accomplish these goals through three research support cores (Administration, Computing/Data/information (GDI) and Methodology) and a Developmental Infrastructure Core that will foster cross-disciplinary and cross-campus research linkages among Columbia faculty whose work advances those goals. Within 5 years, CPRC expects to be highly competitive for a full-scale Population Infrastructure Program award. CPRC is co-directed by Irwin Garfinkel, Mitchell I. Ginsberg Professor of Contemporary Urban Problems in the Faculty of Social Work, and Constance A. Nathanson, Professor of Clinical Sociomedlcal Sciences and of Population and Family Health in the Mailman School of Public Health. RELEVANCE: CPRC will contribute to the public's health both by our commitment to unraveling the social, economic, and environmental circumstances that contribute to health risks, in particular risks to populations made vulnerable by poverty, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and migrant status, and by our equal commitment to translating our research into policies to mitigate those risks.